Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Our next
meeting will be on Tuesday, April 26th at 6:30pm and the topic up for
discussion will be all things disaster, natural or man-made. Last night, our Genre Reading group met to talk about southern
authors and novels.

In a garden
surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even
smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of
fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of
that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it....
The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts
that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even
their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears
prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers.
Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But
so were their futures.

A successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made with her mystical
plants--from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets and the pansies that
make children thoughtful, to the snapdragons intended to discourage the
attentions of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin, Evanelle, is
known for distributing unexpected gifts whose uses become uncannily clear. They
are the last of the Waverleys--except for Claire's rebellious sister, Sydney,
who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as their own mother
had years before.

When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire's
quiet life is turned upside down--along with the protective boundary she has so
carefully constructed around her heart. Together again in the house they grew
up in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind, as Claire struggles to heal
the wounds of the past. And soon the sisters realize they must deal with their
common legacy--if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom--or with each other.

Enchanting and heartfelt, this captivating novel is sure to cast a spell with a
style all its own....

In this
irresistible novel, Sarah Addison Allen, author of the New York Times bestselling
debut, Garden Spells, tells the tale of a young woman whose family
secrets—and secret passions—are about to change her life forever.

Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a
sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of
her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s
house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback
romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring Della
Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy
godmother. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly
expands. She even bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who is hounded by
books that inexplicably appear when she needs them—and who has a close
connection to Josey’s longtime crush. Soon Josey is living in a world where the
color red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons.
And that’s just for starters.

Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding
tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.

In his
phenomenal debut novel—a mesmerizing literary thriller about the bond between
two brothers and the evil they face in a small North Carolina town—author Wiley
Cash displays a remarkable talent for lyrical, powerfully emotional
storytelling. A Land More Kind than Home is a modern masterwork of
Southern fiction, reminiscent of the writings of John Hart (Down River), Tom
Franklin (Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter), Ron Rash (Serena), and Pete Dexter (Paris Trout)—one that is likely to be held in the same enduring esteem as such
American classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and ASeparate Peace. A brilliant evocation of a place, a heart-rending family story,
a gripping and suspenseful mystery—with A Land More Kind than Home, a major
American novelist enthusiastically announces his arrival.

GENERAL
DISCUSSION:

Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
by Dennis CovingtonFor New
York Times reporter Dennis Covington, what began as a journalistic
assignment—covering the trial of an Alabama pastor convicted of attempting to
murder his wife with poisonous snakes—would evolve into a headlong plunge into
a bizarre, mysterious, and ultimately irresistible world of unshakable faith:
the world of holiness snake handling. Set in the heart of Appalachia, Salvation
on Sand Mountain is Covington’s unsurpassed and chillingly captivating
exploration of the nature, power, and extremity of faith—an exploration that
gradually turns inward, until Covington finds himself taking up the snakes.

History has
always been written by the victor, but in the shadows, history has been
manipulated by an ancient Guild of Time Assassins. Until now. Rick Brewer,
assassin's apprentice, is sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. He
escapes to a distant past and, stranded in time, seeks revenge against the
Guild by creating instability in the time-line by choosing powerful targets -
The Presidents of the United States of America. Reginald Mayweather is a
ruthless business tycoon and not one to accept no as an answer, but when a
business prospect fails, he demands the help of the Assassin's Guild to
eradicate the competition by killing his competitor's ancestors. If successful,
it could prove disastrous to the time-line on a global scale. Jason Lassiter
joined the Assassin's Guild because he wanted to experience history first hand.
Little does he know that his future, and the future of the Guild, rests in his
hands.

Following
recent sightings of mysterious lights in the night sky, the account of a
traumatized woman, and a local suicide, supernatural investigator Josh Blair
and University student Daniel Summers are drawn into the heart of the battle
between good and evil, uncovering the connection to seemingly unrelated events
as powerful dark forces threaten to destroy them and their entire city.

GENERAL
DISCUSSION:

The Haunted Mesa by Louis L’AmourThe Navajo
called them the Anasazi, the “ancient enemy,” and their abandoned cities haunt
the canyons and plateaus of the Southwest. For centuries the sudden
disappearance of these people baffled historians. Summoned to a dark desert
plateau by a desperate letter from an old friend, renowned investigator Mike
Raglan is drawn into a world of mystery, violence, and explosive revelations.
Crossing a border beyond the laws of man and nature, he will learn of the
astonishing world of the Anasazi and discover the most extraordinary frontier
ever encountered.

The Sparrow
by Mary Doria RussellThe Sparrow
is a novel about a remarkable man, a living saint, a life-long celibate and
Jesuit priest, who undergoes an experience so harrowing and profound that it
makes him question the existence of God. This experience--the first contact
between human beings and intelligent extraterrestrial life--begins with a small
mistake and ends in a horrible catastrophe.

In a small
Mississippi town, two men are torn apart by circumstance and reunited by
tragedy in this resonant new novel from the award-winning author of the
critically-acclaimed Hell at the Breech.

Larry Ott and Silas ''32'' Jones were unlikely boyhood friends. Larry was the
child of lower middle-class white parents, Silas the son of a poor, single,
black mother -- their worlds as different as night and day. Yet a special bond
developed between them in Chabot, Mississippi. But within a few years, tragedy
struck. In high school, a girl who lived up the road from Larry had gone to the
drive-in movie with him and nobody had seen her again. Her stepfather tried to
have Larry arrested but no body was found and Larry never confessed. The
incident shook up the town, including Silas, and the bond the boys shared was
irrevocably broken.

Almost thirty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence
in Chabot, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion, the looks of
blame that have shadowed him. Silas left home to play college baseball, but now
he's Chabot's constable. The men have few reasons to cross paths, and they
rarely do -- until fate intervenes again.

Another teenaged girl has disappeared, causing rumors to swirl once again. Now,
two men who once called each other friend are finally forced to confront the
painful past they've buried for too many years.

The
Optimist's Daughter is the story of Laurel McKelva Hand, a young woman who
has left the South and returns, years later, to New Orleans, where her father
is dying. After his death, she and her silly young stepmother go back still
farther, to the small Mississippi town where she grew up. Alone in the old
house, Laurel finally comes to an understanding of the past, herself, and her
parents.

The beloved
Fannie Flagg is at her irresistible and hilarious best in I Still Dream
About You, a comic mystery romp through the streets of Birmingham,
Alabama, past, present, and future.

Meet Maggie Fortenberry, a still beautiful former Miss Alabama. To others,
Maggie’s life seems practically perfect—she’s lovely, charming, and a
successful agent at Red Mountain Realty. Still, Maggie can’t help but wonder
how she wound up living a life so different from the one she dreamed of as a
child. But just when things seem completely hopeless, and the secrets of
Maggie’s past drive her to a radical plan to solve it all, Maggie discovers,
quite by accident, that everybody, it seems, has at least one little secret.

I Still Dream About You is a wonderful novel that is equal parts southern
charm, murder mystery, and that perfect combination of comedy and old-fashioned
wisdom that can be served up only by America’s own remarkable Fannie Flagg.

Miss Susie Slagle’s (not in library system, but you may order via the link to Interlibrary Loan) by Augusta Tucker Townsend

Originally
published in 1939, Miss Susie Slagle's spent half a year on the national
best-seller lists, went through twenty-three hardcover printings, and became a major Hollywood motion picture produced by John Houseman. Augusta Tucker's
beloved novel of Baltimore in the halcyon years before the Great War -- and of
the Johns Hopkins medical students who boarded at Miss Susie Slagle's house on
Biddle Street -- is richly
detailed and warmly nostalgic.

Andrew
Glaze's poetry has been described as "funny, quixotic, and very
wise," while writer Norman Rosten once called him "a serious,
irreverent poet, capable of setting off fireworks in the museum."
Overheard in a Drugstore continues in that maverick tradition, offering poems
that are humorous, affectionate, moving, evocative, and controversial --
sometimes simultaneously.

From poems such as "Blue Ridge" and "Sunset Rock," in which
he artfully overlaps a current landscape with ghosts of the past, to
"Fishermen," in which he compares writers to anglers aiming to hook
the perfect prose, his unique voice paints vivid imagery for the reader.

Glaze has been highly praised in the New York Times, nominated for the Pulitzer
Prize, and honored with awards from Poetry Magazine and the Southeastern
Booksellers Association. His first full-length collection, Damned Ugly Children
(1966) was named a "Notable Book" by the American Library
Association. He is in the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame and served as the
Eleventh Poet Laureate of Alabama. He died February 7, 2016 at the age of 95.

GENERAL
DISCUSSION:

Zora’s Roots: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston (Documentary film)This documentary examines the life of author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The
film follows Hurston, best known for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God,
to the subtropical paradise that shaped her childhood and her life's work -
where she returned again and again for inspiration and solace. This documentary
tells her story through the people who knew her and the places and events that
she brought to the world through her writing.

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